Winger Topsy Ojo to make his England Test debut against All Blacks
13 April 2012
Topsy Ojo will complete a switch from budding footballer in Tottenham to winning his rugby spurs for England on Saturday.
No sooner had the 22-year-old from London Irish been named on the right wing against New Zealand than his Nigerian father, Akin, a surgeon in Essex, and older brother Babs were on a plane to the far side of the world.
Topsy Ojo, who will make his international debut against New Zealand on Saturday, runs with the ball during England's training session today
Ojo said. 'My dad has got into rugby more and more. He's always promised, "If you ever play for England we will be there wherever it is in the world".'
A Liverpool fan despite being born in Tottenham, Ojo switched to rugby at Dartford Grammar School and began following his England dream aged 15 when Jason Robinson moved from league to union.
'He inspired me more than anyone else,' Ojo said. 'He was the one player I really looked up to, for the way he played and the way he lived his life.'
Like Robinson a comparative lightweight at not much more than 13 stone, England's newest cap has learned to rely on craft and explosive power.
He said: 'If my technique is good I should still be able to cope against someone twice my size.'
Sitiveni Sivivatu, a fraction taller but more than two stone heavier, will be waiting on the opposite wing.
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